4,500 tickets remain for Chiefs-Colts game

Posted by Mike Florio on January 2, 2014, 11:50 AM EST

AP

The first home playoff game of the post-Peyton Manning may not be televised in Indianapolis.

The Colts have announced that 4,500 unsold tickets remain in advance of Thursday’s extended deadline to sell all non-premium seats. If the tickets aren’t sold by 4:35 p.m. ET, the game will be blacked out in and around Indianapolis.

The first 24-hour extension resulted from the New Year’s Day holiday. In theory, another extension is possible.

Typically, extensions are granted only when a commitment has been made to purchase any remaining tickets at 34 cents. (We’ve asked the NFL whether the 34-cent option applies to unsold postseason tickets.)

Potential blackouts also are looming in Cincinnati and Green Bay. If all three games aren’t televised locally, the wild-card weekend will have more blackouts than all 17 weeks of the regular season, combined.

The fans in those three cities deserve to see the games. If the NFL won’t lift the blackout policy for the postseason, then the billionaires who own the teams should buy the extra tickets, either at 34 or 100 cents on the dollar.

Failure to do so could give considerable momentum to the FCC’s plan to drop the curtain on the blackout policy. Then again, that may already be inevitable.

Also inevitable is a potential eruption from Mt. Irsay, who surely is dismayed at the lack of local support for his team.

Not a colts fan, but have family members who are colts season ticket holders. Apparently playoff tickets are about twice the price as regular season tickets, and season ticket holders were required to purchase tickets for TWO potential home games, up front. Perhaps this policy is to blame, eh?

I hope we’re seeing the peak of the demand for NFL Tickets, and that prices have to come down. I like football as much as the next guy. But at the end of the day…we’re still talking about just one football game, and I can think of a lot better things to do with a couple hundred dollars.

Been to a Colts game… it’s an awful experience. City is boring, No tailgating, stadium reminds me of a high school gym on steroids and the fans seem indifferent. Tried to talk football with some and they weren’t even aware of who the players were. It is a Indy issue.

If those tickets are not sold I hope they do blackout the game. Don’t give me that “we are actually a basketball town” pathetic excuse to rationalize why its ok to not go to a playoff game!!
If that’s your excuse, then don’t go! Watch your pacers, with all the championships they have reeled in lately, and send that franchise to a area that actually appreciates them!

Reality bites. That reality: that millions of dufuses who believed they could keep their health plan and doctors, and the price would drop as millions of young people joined set in.
Now America knows, their health plans will eat a huge amount of income, no one is coming to their rescue and now its time to figure out what they can’t afford anymore, and the first thing to go, playoff and season tickets.

The NFL is in for a rude awakening. Like NASCAR whose numbers have fallen steadily the last two years, football attendance is ready to do the same.
They may just have to suck up and drop the blackout rule due to embarassment. Good thing the new stadiums hold less or it would really be bad, lots of empty seats.
I laugh at the NASCAR events, you know the camera people are instructed to pan away so no one gets a good look at all the empty seasts now.

Huge colts fan but live in Hawaii now so can’t make the game. The issue is our game is Saturday along with a pacers game and home IU game down in Bloomington. Indy bleeds blue for its colts as well as all the other beloved Indiana sports. We sell out our regular season games. It’s unfortunate that we don’t have the Sunday game, maybe we would have sold out maybe not, but it’s unfair to criticize a city that loves all it’s sports teams not just one. We are fortunate to have a state filled with tremendous athletes and programs at different levels.

This is pathetic this is the NFL Playoffs and you can’t sell out you home playoff game. This is why I love being a Broncos Season Ticket holder, easy to be proud when your team has sold out every game since entering the NFL in 1970!

Pay $250 for a ticket. $12 for a beer, $10 hotdog. Sit around a bunch of drunk jerks who’s languiage would make a sailor blush. And if you are stupid enough to take your wife – deal with gropers or guys making inappropriate comments. Then line up for an hour in the parking lot and drive through traffic home.
OR sit at home, eat snacks that aren’t mass produced as cheaply as possible, comfortable chair, partially clad wife 🙂 HD picture with at-will replays and when the game ends your commute is only to the kitchen to refill your plate.
Hmmm………….

This is not a “league issue” as one Colts fan just suggested. It’s literally impossible to get Ravens tickets at face value. They sell out within minutes of going on sale. By the time the page loads, they’re gone. I’m not exaggerating. How is this even possible?

Maybe a testament to the ridiculous cost of NFL tickets, let alone playoff tickets? Couple that with sales beginning after Christmas presents are done and bought. And please, don’t get me started on the January 1 new costs of healthcare. Darn Obama….

Ummm nothing to do with healthcare. (Mine got cheaper btw) But im sure youve had your mind made up well before inception on that issue.
Bottom line is the stadium experience is too expensive and not really any better then at home.
Given the leagues recent trend of catering to casual spectators. The problem will only get worse. Coupled with the rapidly expanding TV experience. (Which actually gets cheaper and more accesable as time goes on.) Point being the only way they get me to the stadium is 2 free tickets with my Papa Johns order. Even then do i really want to spend my time and beer money on the product theyve been putting on field since Goodell took over?
Nope keep your tickets. Theyd be lucky i even bother turning the TV on these days.

Not a league issue, a lack of fan support, had you not built that ugly stadium that looks like an airplane hanger the Indy Irsay’s would have fled town. If this was a Ravens playoff game it would have been sold out with tickets going on stub hub for double or even triple value. You stole the team, now support it, even if it is 30 yearls later!

Wait – Green Bay may not sell out? But it’s the professional football Mecca. The community itself is practically a shrine that honors the game. Fans there wait for generations for the opportunity to enter the hallowed grounds of Lambeau.

The owners don’t care if they pay full price or 34 cents on the dollar since they are paying themselves. These teams will let it get down to the wire to squeeze every last dime they can and then buy up the unsold tickets.

When nose bleed seats are costing $100 low end, parking is $20-40, a beer $9, hotdog $5, not counting the $50 you spent on tailgating food and beer, it adds up quick. Especially if you have kids, if you’re going to spend $100’s you’d hope to at least have some decent seats. With the HD TV’s and amazing camera angles, it’s hard to convince fans to leave home. Thanks Samsung….

1) Just keep this in mind – in 2001 Irsay wanted a brand new stadium. The city fathers of Indy said no. Irsay replied – if you don’t build me a brand-new stadium – AT TAXPAYERS’ EXPENSE – when the present lease expires I’ll move the team to Los Angeles.

The city fathers folded, the (ugly) stadium was built.

And the citizens of Indy were spared the indignity of watching the opening game of the 2006 season and hearing the announcer say “Ladies and gentlemen – Your World Champion Los Angeles Colts.”

It’s a business folks, and if you really think that the owners give a rat’s ass about you then you are sadly mistaken.

A. Indianapolis isn’t a football town so anything above $30 will not bring in people

B. Two away teams are playing. If the Broncos were playing this would be sold out within minutes. The Payton Manning era never actually ended in Indy and he still plays for a team that wears blue and has a horse mascot so it’s all the same to fans here due to point #1.

Weary of “fans” calling out other fans for not snatching up nosebleeds at the 11th hour. Also weary of self professed diehard fans celebrating sitting on the couch, zapping thru commercials, never setting foot in a stadium. Guess what, you are getting a free ride. So hoping somebody else puts up the money so you can watch for free is not a guaranteed thing. Deal with it. At least season ticket holders put their money where their mouth is.

Wow so the NFL wants to force fans to spend a few hundred bucks to go see their local teams play in the playoffs, or they won’t televise it? Well that’s a great idea!
Note to NFL: Maybe your customers are getting sick of being monetarily raped at every opportunity when attending the games. The tipping point has arrived folks, but don’t think the NFL is going to lose. They will simply turn EVERY game into a Pay Per View event or only televise games on their own network that you will pay dearly for, once the current TV contracts expire. Between bad officiating, watered down sissified play, and good old shameless league greed, this could be the beginning of the end of the football as we know it. Enjoy it while you can!

Indy has NEVER been a football city. Tickets have always been easy to get and under list price. Meanwhile the Ravens have sold out every single game in their history. Wonder if it has anything to do with filling the pockets of an owner who is a world class jerk?

Let me first say this, If the lions didn’t blow it and were hosting a playoff game this weekend, I’d be there. But I also dont have kids, and my wife prob woudn’t want to come, so it would be a buddy and I paying our own way each.

The bottom line is the NFL has gouged all it can gouge. I do better than my dad did financally when he was my age, and he afforded to take us to games, I can’t even fathom taking 2 kids and a wife to an NFL game now.

If you get semi decent seats your prob paying $200 a pop min, 20-40 bucks to park your car depending on how far you walk, a couple of $9 beers, anda hotdog or something for another $6, and your starting to push like $300. And if you want to take the famltiply that by like 3 times minus the parking, but throw in another 80 bucks or so to get the kids each a shirt and a gameday magazine.

so you are looking at a grand for one night with the kids, and few hundo just for you. I don’t know about most people, but generally speaking rather than blowing a huge amount of my disposable income for the foreseeable future, i’d rather have the boys over and watch the game on HDTV from my comfy sectional sofa in the basement man cave complete with wet bar. Hell, it cost me less to do most of the finish work, buy the kegerator, sofa, and TV that it would to hit up a few games a season.

I live in Indy and have several friends that are die hard Colts fans and season ticket holders. None of them bought the playoff tickets this year. NONE OF THEM!!!! This has nothing to do with the Pacers, IU, or not bleeding blue, its all about cash and the lack of it. Two of them are not renewing their seats for next season for the same reason. I’ve known all of these guys for nearly 15 years now and would definitely classify them as die hard fans. It is a damn shame that the real fans cant even afford to go to the games.

Get ready for it Indy!! Same thing his father pulled here in Baltimore and the apple didn’t fall far from the tree. Hope y’all can get those tickets sold and never have to experience what we did in Baltimore. Sad to say, but he is all about the money and won’t think twice about pulling up stakes and moving.

I couldn’t believe he got rid of Peyton and I was truly sorry for your fans when it happened. Looks like he may be heading down the same path with the team.

All of you who want to say Indy is not a football town then you have never been to Indy on game day!! You might say Baltimore would have been sold out but guess what, they didn’t make it! Also, Indy holds 66k people. The bottom line is I have attended several games but due to retiring from the military I don’t have the same income I use to. Should I be punished for not being able to pay a grand to see my favorite team play?? No, so keep your crappy comments in Baltimore with your non playoff making team!!

I love hearing these tool Raven fans talk about lack of support of Indianapolis fans. First, the Baltimore MSA has about 800k more people than the Indianapolis MSA. Secondly, the sports dollar is probably stretched thinner in Central Indiana than in any other area of the country. Colts, Pacers, Indy 500, Purdue sports, IU sports, Butler basketball, Notre Dame. All in a smaller market. What the hell else is there for Baltimore fans to spend their money on other than the Ravens games. Last year was the first in forever anyone went to an Orioles game – so spare me the fair weather crap. The bottom line is that the people of Central Indiana are extremely supportive of their teams and have passion for all.